ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Katie Carr, an 11-year-old numismatist from Cloverley Elementary School in Silver Spring, gives a thumbs-up to the design of Maryland's new commemorative quarter.
George Washington's profile remains on the heads side, of course. But the Maryland State House, the site where Washington resigned his Army commission, will take the place of the American eagle on the reverse of Maryland's new quarter, unveiled Monday."It's gotta lot of history to it," said Katie. As for Georgia's peach, Connecticut's tree and the four other state designs, she said, "They just don't go."
The State House design was selected by the governor from hundreds of entries, beating out another finalist: a depiction of the British bombs bursting over Fort McHenry in 1814 that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen "The Star-Spangled Banner."
It was another striking nighttime scene that inspired Maryland's new quarter designer William Krawczewicz. The 33-year-old bank note designer for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was in Annapolis two years ago when he happened to glance up and see the dome lit up against the night sky.
"When I saw the dome," he said, "that was my main source of inspiration."
The Maryland State House is the nation's oldest statehouse still in legislative use and is the only one to have served as the nation's capitol, from November 1783 to August 1784. Washington resigned his Army commission here in 1783, before taking the oath of office as the nation's first president.
"I hope when people look at this dome they get a sense of what Maryland is all about," Gov. Parris Glendening said Monday.
More than 1 billion Maryland quarters will be stamped in a 10-week period to keep pace with public demand for the new quarters, said David Pickens, associate director of the U.S. Mint.
Collectors snapping up the commemorative coins have forced the Mint to more than double its normal production of about 1.5 billion quarters to 3.6 billion last year.
"These quarters have joined the most popular collections in the world, even outstripping Pokemons and Beanie Babies," said David Pickens, associate director of the U.S. Mint.
By 2008, all 50 states will have had a chance to redesign the tails side of the quarter in the order which they entered the union. Washington's profile will always remain on the heads side.
On the Net: The U.S. Mint: www.usmint.gov